Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Baby shark, do do do do...

 

 

Baby shark goes to play with some randy teens, but eats their boat, and when he goes to give them back a teddy bear, humans capture it. No good dead goes unpunished.

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Then we met the villain of the piece. Dr Susan has been experimenting on sharks without their consent. She also told her badly demented dad every day that his wife was dead, just to see him cry. "Welcome to my parlour" she snarls as she shows people her underground base for doing experiments on prisoners. She is also played by Saffron Burrows, who was a good, good personal friend of Tony Benn after his wife died.

Without any technobabble, she forces Samuel L Jackson to a Navy centre for sharks. These sharks have been given stimulants to make them super intelligent, but they are locked up so Nazi scientists (presumably) can do intelligence on them. We see folk beat up one of the parent sharks who went looking for Baby Shark, and the audience feels sympathy for the heroic beast as it is dumped in an underwater cage.

A man goes swimming with the sharks, and they show their restraint by not chomping him.

If you think I am being sarcastic, Burrows plays her role as an actress who clearly thinks she is playing a sod.

So because of Baby Sharks adventure with the randy teens, they've brought Samuel L Jackson to the centre so he can agree with the conditions, as a former Vietnam vet now corporate executive, known for his affinity with sharks. However he doesn't see "Free the Mako Four" and seems to side with their human captors.

If anyone's going to save Baby Shark, it's going to need to be his parents. Luckily, a storm is on its way to lend a hand.

Dr Saffron shows her evil nature by doing a live operation on a shark without properly anesthetizing it first, and it chomps Dr Jim's arm off to try and stop the pain by causing more in others. Dr Jim is said to be a genius, but all we see of him is take a piss in public and then getting his arm chomped off, before dying. "Can you save this mans life?" they ask Dr Saffron, and she callously goes "No, I'm not that kind of Doctor..."

Samuel L Jackson looks moody, and Ladies Love Cool J shows up as a chef. He likes animals as he feeds a parrot. He is also seen as the one person on base who tries to feed the prisoner family of sharks.

Samuel L Jackson makes a big speech about how this is like the war. Big movie speech. Daddy Shark (do do do do) goes up to warn him this is dangerous, but accidentally chomps him in two instead.

So like, did Dr Susan just hope that there would never be a single storm ever in the middle of the Pacific? How did she get to become a Doctor, applying for the X-Factor?

Blonde Hollywood Designated Lead Man says keeping the sharks captive is a bad idea. The family hear this and remember this.

So yes big storm, explosion of helicopters, prison walls breach and the Mummy and Daddy shark go about saving the Baby Shark and going all Liam Neeson in Taken on the humans involved. The scene where the Daddy Shark bites Dr Jims arm off, and breaks free from its chains is subtly done as the camera work focuses on the human villains and lets the shark escape off screen. Subtle storytelling and cinematography there.

Luckily the human villains aren't very smart. There is 40 seconds before the big screen shatters but they stand there looking scared before running away. At this point Dr Saffron starts to have a breakdown as if overcome by the realisation of her own evil.

Twice the Wiki for this says "and the woman died, despite Carter's best efforts to save her." To fail to save one woman from a shark is misfortune, to fail twice looks like deliberate strategy.

Anyhow, finally Daddy Shark has a showdown with Dr Saffron Burrows, and promptly chomps her. And just like that, the villain of the piece is no more!

The Family Ness remember that LL Cool J kept them fed and was the nicest human, so let him live. This shows they don't pay attention to the tropes of horror. Sadly, there is a downer ending as the sole living human blows the family of sharks the ¤¤¤¤ up with explosives. You can see why Disney didn't want to promote this film, that is a right sad ending for any kids watching.


So yeah, a horrific tale of experimentation and imprisonment, with a downer ending as our heroes are blown up. Even Baby Shark. As a result, I strongly suggest you do not let any young children see this film, as they will cry more than when Bambi's mum gets shot. Saffron Burrows easily plays the villain role, and focusing on the POV of the villains is a curious directorial touch, but overall, Deep Blue Sea needed a happier ending for its young horror audience.